ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA. | Harry Moffett traveled to Dallas this weekend for the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, an event that gave him his most important assignment as a Marine.

He's there for a reunion of sorts with 20 other Marines who played a part as the nation laid the slain young president to rest, from the body bearers who moved his coffin, the honor guard that stood at attention as he lay in state and finally the color guard that marched in the funeral procession.

Moffett, 72, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was right rifle in the three-man color guard that marched in front of the clergy as Kennedy's body was carried on a horse-drawn caisson from the Capitol, past the White House to the grave at Arlington National Cemetery at the foot of the hill beneath Robert E. Lee's former home.

Moffett was assigned to the color guard at the 8th and I Marine Barracks - named for its location in Washington - when Kennedy was slain.

As he finished infantry training at Camp Lejeune, Moffett's drill instructor told him that as "a squared-away Marine,'' he would be suited for the ceremonial duties at 8th and I. Once he arrived there, they took a look at the 6-foot-2 Marine with a 30-inch waist and thought he had the look needed in the color guard.

Asked how he got the assignment for Kennedy's funeral, Moffett said, "It was based on seniority. There were Marines at 8th and I with more seniority, but I was the senior right rifle.''

And a right rifle was called for in military protocol. A soldier from the oldest branch of service, the Army, carried the American flag, followed by the third most senior service, the U.S. Marine Corps, at right rifle and the Air Force at left rifle.

Color guards always have at least one service flag, but in Kennedy's funeral, the Navy corpsman from the second oldest service branch carried the Navy flag behind Kennedy's coffin.

Moffett has photos of himself in the Rotunda, on Pennsylvania Avenue and other points on Nov. 24 and 25.

On Nov. 24, he marched in the color guard as Kennedy's remains were moved from the White House, where he had first lain in state, to the Rotunda. Then there was the long procession on Nov. 25 from the Capitol, past the White House, to St. Matthew's and then to Arlington.

Perhaps the most memories for Moffett are evoked in a picture of the color guard in the Rotunda between the coffin and the crowd that included a lot of military brass.

"When we walked into that Rotunda, we're the only ones moving,'' he said.

"One of the things I remember most is our steel taps [sounding] on the marble floor,'' he said, "the popping of the flashbulbs, the whirring of the [TV] cameras and the occasional sob."

Although his eyes were straight to the front, he still saw some things.

"When we turned to leave, my congressman from North Carolina, who lived across the street from us in Gastonia, I saw him,'' Moffett said.

During one turn, the color guard faced the family.

"My eyes locked with Jackie's," he said. "I still get chills."

He also remembered "Little John John'' stepping on his foot.

He related some things that people didn't realize. The crowds, standing eight to 10 deep, saw the color guard, body bearers and honor guards marching in flawless lockstep, the flags and rifles shouldered at a uniform angle.

"We didn't practice this thing,'' he said.

There were instructions before it started and then others spoken quietly along the way as Army Lt. Sam Bird, who is shown often with the coffin, made sure that the military details did their jobs.

At St. Matthew's, however, the color guard took a break during the Mass, got a drink and rested.

"We only had one order, that we were to be photographed only at right shoulder arms,'' not easy to carry out with a 12-pound Springfield 03 rifle in the same position for the long march, he said.

With the cameras set up only at intersections, the color guard shifted to left shoulder arms about a third of the way between blocks and shifted back to right shoulder before they got into camera range, he said.

Moffett said Bird, who has become a close friend, went to the public information officers of each branch of service after the funeral and told them he wanted copies of every photo they had. That's how Moffett ended up with his packed scrapbooks.

But he has other photos of his service at 8th and I. He was in the funeral detail for Gen. Douglas MacArthur in April 1964 and there are others of him conducting tours for handicapped children in Robert Kennedy's office.

He also served at Camp David, where he and other Marines were dispatched anytime the Kennedys were there.

"Jackie wouldn't let her kids see armed military when they were there. We had to hide,'' he said.

During the Cuban missile crisis, he spent two weeks at Camp David in readiness to guard the president should he be sent there for security reasons.

After his hitch in the Marines, Moffett returned to college, got his degree and spent his professional life in banking. He retired to St. Simons, where he and his wife live on East Beach.

Asked what sort of plans his Marine comrades had in Dallas, Moffett said he didn't know beyond dinner and visiting the Texas Book Depository, from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot.

Mostly, they just get together and remember their most somber duty as the world watched, he said.

Terry Dickson: (912) 264-0405

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